traight lines are Gordon Hayward’s
visual comfort food. After all, he
grew up in a Connecticut orchard
where regimental rows of apple, peach, and
pear trees paraded smartly across the hills. So
give him an axis that has sharp right angles,
and Hayward is blissful. That explains a lot
about the garden that flows around the farmhouse that Gordon and Mary Hayward have
called home (or one of their homes — they also
garden in England’s Cotswolds) since 1983.

The landscape cuts a neat line from the
front door through 180 feet of allées with
clipped hedges hugging the corners and
blowsy beds tickling the precise geometry.
Axis points tempt you off course, benches
invite from the shade of pergolas or beneath
the branches of trees, and wonderful little
side trips send you down mown paths wading
through meadows. In fact, there is so much